Man in the pink mask in Nacho Vigalondo's science fiction thriller,"TIMECRIMES," opening Friday Dec. 19.Hector (Karra Elejalde) is relaxing on a lawn chair outside of his new country home, surveying the nearby hillside through a pair of binoculars, when he catches sight of what appears to be a nude woman amidst the trees. Hiking up to investigate, he is attacked by a sinister figure whose head is wrapped in a grotesque, pink bandage. Fleeing in terror, he takes refuge in a laboratory atop the hill, where a lone attendant (director Nacho Vigalondo) ushers him in to a peculiar scientific contraption. He emerges what seems to be moments later, only to find that he has traveled back hours in time, setting in motion a brain-twisting, horrifying chain of events when he inadvertently runs into himself. Drawing from the best traditions of classic science fiction and crime fiction, TIMECRIMES plays games with the genre and the audience, giving the protaganist a Russian-doll like shell of identities that are shed so often that Hector can be playing one of any number of whodunit archetypes at any given moment as he becomes increasingly more complicit in the complicated mess that he?s trying to fix.

This low-budget Spanish offering is a pretty decent take on a shopworn genre, the time-travel story. It begins slowly, but when it gets going, it rings a series of amusing, if not entirely unpredictable, changes on the theme "what if you went back in time and changed things?"

Spanish fantasy and horror offerings have been plentiful in the past few years, notably with "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Orphanage" and the very fine "REC" (which got an underwhelming American remake this year called "Quarantine"). Critics praised these pictures for stressing character and story over shocks and special effects, and that goes for "Timecrimes" as well.

If you saw Shane Carruth's microbudget "Primer," another picture in which time gets entertainingly out of joint, you'll know what to expect here. Like "Primer," "Timecrimes" gains impact by focusing on a mere handful of characters (four, in this case).

Hector (Karra Elejalde) and Clara (Candela Fernandez) are moving into a country home. As she whips the place into shape, Hector employs his binoculars, "Rear Window" style, to check out the vicinity. In a nearby woods, he spots a young woman (Barbara Goenaga) taking off her clothes. When he approaches her, he is stabbed by a man with a bloodily bandaged head.

Running to a nearby house in terror, Hector finds he has stumbled into a laboratory, where a researcher (played by director Nacho Vigalondo) offers a place to hide in a huge high-tech tank. When Hector emerges from the mysterious liquid in the tank, he's horrified to learn that he has traveled briefly backward in time - for maybe 90 minutes.

The suspense begins with the stabbing scene, but now it really takes off. Hector focuses his binoculars back at his house and sees himself interact with his wife, exactly as he did an hour and a half ago. The researcher tells him that, whatever happens, he must not interfere with his earlier self.

That's all the plot you'll get here. Suffice it to say that as the minutes tick away, we see explanations for small oddities in the opening sequence, and much more. Vigalondo, who also wrote the picture, offers some genuine surprises (and a couple of letdowns) in developing this wheels-within-wheels story.

Overall, it's a nice melding of sci-fi and a crime story. I won't swear that it's logically airtight - time travel stories often cheat - but the director keeps us too involved to ask many questions.

Elejalde is a bit puffy for a movie hero, but once his character decides that he'll do whatever's necessary to escape his plight, he's a real can-do guy. As to Vigalondo's performance, he should probably stick to directing.

"Timecrimes" will get a U.S. remake, scheduled for release next year, and the director is rumored to be none other than David Cronenberg.